Efforts are underway to give a New Jersey elementary school a presidential twist by renaming it after Donald Trump.
Robert Scales, a member of the Colts Neck Township School Board, has put forward a proposal to rename Conover Road Primary School in honor of the former U.S. president. This suggestion comes as Scales seeks to pay tribute to Trump’s contributions, particularly in the realm of education, as he sees them.
During a recent school board meeting, Scales passionately argued for the change, questioning, “What person is doing things that protect our school?” His proposal wasn’t just about a simple name change; he pushed for the formation of an exploratory committee to delve into the logistics and implications of such a renaming. This committee would assess the potential costs involved and determine if there are any legal or ethical boundaries associated with naming a school after a president, according to reports from New Jersey Advance Media.
In response to Scales’ proposal, Colts Neck School Board President Angelique Volpe noted that naming schools after presidents is not unprecedented, citing that over a dozen schools have already been named in honor of former President Barack Obama.
The business exec even called for the creation of an exploratory committee to discuss the potential transformation, saying he wanted them to “see not only how much this would cost, but what lines, if any, could be crossed by naming a school after a president,” New Jersey Advance Media reported.
Colts Neck School Board president Angelique Volpe responded by pointing out that more than a dozen schools have already been named after former President Barack Obama.
However, there are some in the township who are not so keen on the idea of giving the school — which is currently named after a Colts Neck landowner — the name of the 45th and 47th president.
After the meeting, Colts Neck resident Matthew Jenkins — a Democrat who ran for Congress in 2024 for New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District and lost — took to Instagram to bash the proposal.
“School names are supposed to reflect the virtues we hope to instill in our children: integrity, humility, service, respect for the law, and a commitment to community over self,” he said in the post, which only received 26 likes.
“Donald Trump does not embody those values. He represents division over unity, grievance, overgrowth, personal loyalty over public responsibility.”
The Colts Neck School Board already has connections to Trump and his administration.
Volpe’s husband, Kevin Walsh, who is also a school board member, has been the director of security at the Trump building at 40 Wall Street for the past five years.
“Just to be completely transparent, I’ve — me and Kevin — have reached out to the president and would love to have him visit our district as well,” Volpe announced at the meeting.
Colts Neck also hosted U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in December for her “History Rocks!” tour, where she visited schools in all 50 states to mark the country’s 250th anniversary.
Sixty nine percent of residents in Colts Neck, a wealthy township in Monmouth County where the median household income is $173,989, voted for Trump in the last election.
